Shillong, May 14: District Transport Official(DTO) of East Garo Hills was arrested in connection with alleged fake registration of vehicle papers.
According to the police, the arrest was following a case registered at Agia police, on the basis of documentary and electronic evidence.
The DTO, Genekelly G Momin @ Raju Momin was detained on Saturday night with the help of Meghalaya police.
On Sunday, he was arrested and produced before the court.
Police said on specific information, a naka was placed before Agia police station on May 4 and a vehicle was detained for search. During the search 6 numbers of registration certificates of various vehicles were seized from the owner of the vehicle, Golam Ali @Soto, Kismatpur, Goalpara.
All the 6 original registration certificates were issued by DTO Williamnagar.
Out of the 6 original registration certificates, 5 registration certificates were found to be made with false engine and chassis numbers.
While cross checking the detained vehicle ML 07 C 1786 , it was noticed that the engine number of the vehicle was shown with a different owner and chassis number was not valid for Maruti vehicles.
For other 5 registration certificates, all were cross-verified at respective manufacturers (Tata, Mahindra) and found that out of 5 vehicles 4 vehicles’ engine and chassis numbers were fake (not in the company database).
After investigation, it was found that the DTO issued registration certificates without checking any valid credentials of engine and chassis numbers of the vehicles.
Arson after arrest
Police said after registration of the case and arrest of Golam on May 4, one suspected arson incident occurred at East Garo Hills DTO office and some important documents were damaged too.
Finding sufficient evidence along with details of some monetary transactions between already arrested Golam and the DTO, the latter was arrested.
Police seized 3 vehicles with bogus engine and chassis number registered at the DTO office.
